PICS: Rescuers race against time to save boy stuck in borewell

PICS: Rescuers race against time to save boy stuck in borewell

Rescue efforts were on for the third day on Tuesday to pull out a six-year-old boy trapped in an abandoned borewell at a farm in Sulikeri village in Bagalkot in Karnataka, even as his father pleaded for stopping the operation, fearing the worst for his son.

District officials said a 70-75 ft trench has been dug so far to gain access to Thimmanna Hatti, who is trapped at a depth of 160 feet in the 300-ft borewell. A vacuum pump has been brought from Bagalkot Municipal Corporation to clear the mud covering the boy, officials said.

The boy's distraught father Hanumantha Hatti sought stopping the rescue operations to dig a parallel, pit-cum-tunnel in L shape, saying he is almost certain his son is no more.

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Image: Rescue operations to save 6-year-old boy who fell into a borewell in Bagalkot in Karnataka underwayPhotographs: ANI

PICS: Rescuers race against time to save boy stuck in borewell

"I won't get back my son alive after all this that is being done. I should at least save my land for the future of my two daughters," he told mediapersons, as nearly three lakh cubic metres of mud had been dug covering good part of the farm, which has also been thronged by hundreds of people.

"To get this pit closed, I may have to again go for a huge loan. I have come to this decision with great difficulty. Let this work be stopped," he said. District in-charge Minister S R Patil, who is overseeing the operation, said, "The father is in great pain, He is saying all this may be in emotional mood of not being able to save his son and also seeing his land being dug up."

PICS: Rescuers race against time to save boy stuck in borewell

But, he said, the government "Cannot take decision like that. We have a job to do and that is to bring back the boy, for now the rescue operations will continue." A robotic equipment team lead by Manikanthan from Madurai is being roped in to help in rescue operation, officials said.

A similar attempt using the robot to pull out the boy failed on Monday. Thimmanna fell into the borewell in his father's sugarcane field while he was with his cousin on Sunday.